Figured I’d sneak in here before SJ rocked your world with his descriptions of the oceans of orange in the AZ. The first round continued to impress with a surprise Philly win, a sloppy showing by CP3, the Spurs running away with the series and Josh Howard doing something so stupid that even Jamal Mashburn had to ask, ‘Was he high?’
Let’s get to the Sixers. It’s time we stopped talking about how Detroit isn’t showing up to games and give the Philly boys all the credit in the world. Even with Andre Iggy wetting the bed with a 2-for-9 showing, Sammy Dalembert came through with a 22 and 16 while shutting down Sheed (2 points) and breaking Antonio McDyess‘ nose (ESPN actually showed the blood gushing onto the court for a few seconds).
Only Rip (23 points) and Tayshaun (18) did anything offensively for Detroit, which only had three players in double figures. Chauncey shot 2-for-11, but like you see with Philly, the Pistons could have overcome that had Mr. Perpetual X-Factor done his thing. Needless to say, I’m talking about Sheed. Maybe the Pistons are overconfident, maybe they commit too many careless turnovers (23 tonight), maybe the fire has been slowly going out for three years, but the one thing that has always been true with them is that their success hinges on Sheed. Not him scoring 28 points, but controlling the paint on both ends like everyone knows he can. The Pistons get labelled and marketed as a ‘Team’ oriented team, like San Antonio, but unlike the Spurs, they don’t get consistent performances from their key players. Manu and Tony can do their thing all they want, but that team doesn’t go anywhere without Duncan. If Philly wins, it should be less of an upset and more of one team performing to its abilities while the other doesn’t. Then again, maybe the Pistons are fooling us, maybe they aren’t this good anymore. The defense sure isn’t.
Onto the Mavs win. Dirk did his Diggler thang, dropping a 32 and 19 on a somewhat bewildered Hornets squad in Dallas. The Mavericks absolutely had to win this game to have a chance in the series and they did what they needed to do while taking advantage of an uncharacteristically off showing from CP3, who let Kidd get the better of him during a few offensive runs. The striking thing was that neither team had more than 9 turnovers and the Mavs somehow allowed Jannero friggin Pargo to reach 30 points. How that happened, the world will never know, but if the Mavs can get West and Chandler in early foul trouble again like they did tonight, this is still anyone’s series, unless Paul has a few more 30 and 18’s up his sleeve, which he still might.
The Game of the Night was also a sort of quasi-blowout, though incredibly entertaining to watch. The Spurs controlled a double digit lead most of the night and held off every sort of Pheonix run imaginable. Sort of felt like the Suns were an average-looking guy at a high-end club who tried to hit on all the 10 ladies in the house, and would earn himself a few minutes of chatter at the bar before being shut down and watching the woman go makeout with a rich dude wearing a velour sweatsuit. Every time the Suns hit a few 3’s or got a Amare a dunk or two, Tony Parker was right there with a floater in the lane or a simple pick-and-roll for a Duncan elbow jumper. It was purely clinical. While there were flashier plays, the highlight of the game was seeing Shaq switched onto Manu after a screen and seeing Ginobili practically looking giddy, taking his sweet time walking backwards to the arc and hitting a casual trey while Shaq flailed in the air.
It’s hard to hate on the Suns anymore now that Nash isn’t getting MVP’s thrown at him because they almost look desperate. Shaq is trying, but, and grip if you want about it, the Hack-a-Shaq does more than just make him shoot freebies, it takes him out of the game for a couple possessions. You can’t tell me Poppovich isn’t only one of the Top 3 coaches today, but one of the greatest coaches of all time. He’s almost as undersold as Timmy is, but I’ll let SJ give you an epic poem on the big guy.
Finally, J-Ho, what were you thinking? Sure, most people know that many NBA players smoke weed (it’s as fair as calling MLBers needle pushers), but that doesn’t mean you can parade the fact around. Josh, it’s still illegal, despite what you may think. People aren’t going to freak out about it because it’s not a performance enhancing drug, but Cuban’s going to give you a hard slap on the wrist for this one. I still wouldn’t count on any suspension if I were a Hornets fan. Underrated fact of the story: Howard told this to Michael Irvin (who seems to have a hand in everything these days) on his radio show, which is becoming quite the stop for anything controversial after that four hour sitdown with Pacman a few weeks ago.